Except with Android, you're free to distribute or install applications through alternate apparently stores, or directly through the internet with .apk files. If Apple allowed that on the iPhone, nobody would care if they banned something from their "blessed" channel...
Same with palm pre, except it's ipk files. You can also use a free application hosting version of their "app store", where palm hosts a link to your app, no approval processes/money necessary. It doesn't appear in the catalog this way although.
